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Thursday, December 17, 2009

Industry Talk: Afghanistan Security Contractor Blog–‘Knights of Afghanistan’

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk,Media News — Tags: blogging, knights of afghanistan, private security companies, security contracting — Matt @ 6:03 AM

The other day I found something very rare in this industry–a blogger. There are not too many of us doing the blogging thing, so it is always a treat to find others who have a voice to share. So with that said, let me introduce to you Paladin Six.

Actually, his stuff reminds me a lot of what Tim Lynch is producing, and that is some ground truth about their little piece of the war effort. I am sure the milblogging community will find Paladin Six’s posts to be informative as well. I highly recommend putting this blog on your Google Reader to keep track of dispatches, and definitely don’t be a stranger when you visit Knights of Afghanistan. –Matt

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Paladin Six

Paladin Six, the author of Knights of Afghanistan.

About Me

Coming up on one year in Afghanistan, serving as Country Manager for a local (all Afghan) private security company. Although I have some limited military experience, I am not one of those ex-Special Forces guys who gets written up in Rolling Stone. This is a business, not a frat party, and we treat it as such.

Knights of Afghanistan

Introduction (first post)

March, 2009

And so I’m off to Afghanistan. At the suggestion of many of those who know me well, I have decided to create a blog covering my experiences working in the private security industry in Kabul. For personal and professional reasons, this will be an anonymous endeavor, a place to put observations, discoveries and random musings (along with the occasional bit of critical thinking and punditry). I intend to keep the tone light and the style accessible; no claim is made to speak for the broader PSC community or of a monopoly on wisdom (I leave that for actual conversation). With a little luck, this might even be mildly entertaining, at least for me.

I’m new to this blogging thing, so there are likely to be numerous mistakes of content and style in what follows. In the interest of keeping up to date, I will sometimes be posting without the benefit of a thorough review. I hope to reduce the incidence of idiocy as time goes on. I think you’ll find that I tend to be somewhat less than fully in compliance with tenents of political correctness. I assure you this is entirely intentional. Get over it.

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Technology: $26 Software Is Used to Hack Drones?

Filed under: Iraq,Technology — Tags: drones, Iraq, security, skygrabber, software, surveillance, Technology — Matt @ 5:37 AM

I certainly hope they are encrypting all the feeds now. Wow. So all you needed was a SkyGrabber program to access this stuff? Pffft. Never underestimate the enemy, never. –Matt

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Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

December 17, 2009

$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected

By SIOBHAN GORMAN, YOCHI J. DREAZEN and AUGUST COLE

WASHINGTON — Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes’ systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber — available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet — to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.

U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants were able to take control of the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights. Still, the intercepts could give America’s enemies battlefield advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and buildings are under U.S. surveillance.

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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Afghanistan: Up To 56,000 More Contractors Likely For Afghanistan, CRS Says

Filed under: Afghanistan,Iraq — Tags: Afghanistan, CRS, Iraq, logisitics, private military contractors, security contractors — Matt @ 8:24 AM

This is a continuation from yesterday’s post about the CRS report. You don’t hear this figure in all the crazy surge talk, but you sure do hear a lot about the troop surge or civilian surge. I guess we are not surge-worthy? lol

What I thought was interesting in the report, is that they don’t know how many security contractors there are in Afghanistan, but the report promises that this data will be in the next report. Hmmmm. Suspicious.

There used to be data for this. They have the numbers for Iraq at about 12,684 security contractors at this time. –Matt

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Up to 56,000 more contractors likely for Afghanistan, congressional agency says

By Walter PincusWednesday, December 16, 2009

The surge of 30,000 U.S. troops into Afghanistan could be accompanied by a surge of up to 56,000 contractors, vastly expanding the presence of personnel from the U.S. private sector in a war zone, according to a study by the Congressional Research Service.

CRS, which provides background information to members of Congress on a bipartisan basis, said it expects an additional 26,000 to 56,000 contractors to be sent to Afghanistan. That would bring the number of contractors in the country to anywhere from 130,000 to 160,000.

The tally “could increase further if the new [administration] strategy includes a more robust construction and nation building effort,” according to the report, which was released Monday and first disclosed on the Web site Talking Points Memo.

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